Its really not to difficult to imagine a scenario where several women, in various parts of the country, might have been sending long distance high fives to Laila Ali, last Saturday. They would have been watching, on TV, Christy Martin, on her hands and knees, gazing blearily into her corner as her husband/manager, Jim Martin, more than likely encouraging her to “stay down, stay down” Martin, of course did stay down, since, in fact, she was probably the last person in the Grand Casino in Biloxi, MS who wanted the one-sided boxing match with Laila Ali to continue.
Those women? Lets give them names: Jovette Jackson, Del Pettis, Sue Chase, Angela Buchanan. They were all opponents that Christy Martin KO’d as part of a long string of carefully chosen bouts during her days as the “face” of Women’s boxing and the female star of PPV boxing events in the nineties. It is, likewise, not hard to imagine that these women were also thinking, as they watched Ali rain blows on Martin, “now you know how it feels when you’re overmatched, when you’re in with a fighter you have no chance of beating”. For the fact was that a number of Martin’s bouts, maybe too many, during that time period, were like that: overmatched opponents, in against a fighter, Christy Martin, who had boxing skills and punching power her opponents could only begin to imagine.
The most blatant of these mismatches was in November, 1996 against one Bethany Payne. Payne was purported, by the Martin “camp” and the promoter of this particular PPV event, a certain Mr. Don King, to have an “extensive” ring background. That myth was excised immediately following the opening bell, as Payne sent a “pawing” left hand toward the advancing Martin (a particularly observant ringside wit noted that Payne “threw her hands around like an eggbeater”). Martin, on the other hand, looked like the proverbial wolf presented with a lamb. Stepping inside a particularly lackluster “eggbeater” left hand, Martin threw a left hook and a right cross both of which landed with devastating force. For reasons defying all laws of physics, Payne did not fall, but her equilibrium deserted her and her legs turned to cooked strands of macaroni. Martin loaded up to throw more punches but the referee, Kenny Bayliss, jumped between the fighters saving Payne from certain injury and calling an end to the farce. As Payne was led, dazedly, to her corner, Martin proceeded to dance around the ring, mocking, in a particular graceless move, Payne’s “legless” reaction to the punches.
Thus I’m fairly sure that if Bethany Payne was tuned in to the PPV on Saturday, she may have remembered back to that fight in Las Vegas in November of 1996. Whether she garnered any satisfaction from Ali dismantling Martin is impossible to know. However, the stark contrast of those two Christy Martins; one the preening winner in 1996, humiliating her clearly overmatched opponent, and the Christy Martin of last Saturday, beaten to the canvas, by a bigger, more powerful, more skilled woman is not difficult to recognize. In literature, we learn that such reversal is the essence of comedy-and also of tragedy and such it is here.
Comic because it is truly laughable for anyone to believe that superiority lasts forever; that every opponent is going to be a Bethany Payne, that somewhere further down the career path there isn’t a Laila Ali awaiting. Tragic because for every victorious parade around a ring, for every triumphant climb up the ring ropes, there is going to be time spent on the floor staring into your corner, listening to the plea, “stay down, stay down”.
And so, Christy Martin has now experienced victory and defeat, joy and sorrow, comedy and tragedy. The question “what’s next” is logical. Martin has talked about fifty wins before she ends her career. The Ali fight was, realistically, for Martin, the last of her “big money” bouts. To get to fifty wins, by current count, Martin will need six more victories. Several paths to that goal are available. Going back to her “comfortable” weight, 135-145, puts Martin in the most competitive weight class in the sport. There are a number of good matchups should Martin wish to avail herself: the long talked about bout with Lucia Rijker, a rematch with Sumya Anani, fights with Jane Couch, Sunshine Fettkether, Marischa Sjauw, Fredia Gibbs, Chevelle Hallback. One problem with that group of fighters is that six wins might come very slowly. Another, somewhat less sublime, direction, would be “Battle of the Covergirls, the Series”, where six wins would be a great deal more achievable, but far less palatable to the boxing public. Another even more ludicrous thought, also involving Mia St. John, would involve a quick scan of St. John’s rolodex of opponents, a search which would, undoubtedly, yield six wins, but might irreparably damage Martin’s boxing legacy.
And what of the other woman in the ring on Saturday, the new “face” of Women’s boxing, Laila Ali. She’s in s position approximately where Christy Martin was in the nineties. One hopes that she handles that mantle of superiority with a bit more “grace under pressure” than did Martin. Initial indications have been mixed. Ali can be lucid, charming, gregarious, but has yet to learn how to effectively parry criticism and to let her considerable boxing talent do the majority of talking about her prominence in the sport.
Laila Ali had the best view of Martin on the canvas on Saturday night; indeed, she was the one who put her there. Ali can learn from that vantage point of the former “face” of the sport, or she can delude herself into believing that those type of Saturday nights in Biloxi will last forever. Maybe Martin truly believed that it was going to be all Bethany Paynes for the rest of her career and, of course, it wasn’t. It may seem ludicrous to posit that some time in the future, Ali might be looking into her corner as “Yayah” McClain implores her to “stay down, stay down”. I’m certain, at this point in time, that type of prediction would yield a derisive “Yeah, right”, from Laila Ali and her minions. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald, years ago, got it best, “Show me a hero, and I’ll write you a tragedy”. Christy Martin knows, hopefully Laila Ali will learn. Bernie McCoy